Cops save child from being sold

Dec 15, 2013, 05:55 IST
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Saurabh Vaktania

Railway police in Gujarat's Valsad station nab kidnapper and rescue a three-year-old girl from Nagpada, after city cops send out late night alert

A 50-year-old man was arrested by officers of the Nagpada police on Saturday and charged with kidnapping a three-year-old girl from Bellasis road in Nagpada. The cops say Mohammad Umar Mohammad Kallu kidnapped the girl and was taking her toGujarat to sell her to the highest bidder, when he was intercepted by the Gujarat railway police force at Valsad Railway station.

Kallu was brought back to Mumbai and arrested by the city cops on Saturday. He has now been sent to police custody.According to the police, the girl resides with her mother on a roadside hut on Bellasis Road in Nagpada. Apparently the mother, having experienced similar attempts on her daughter earlier, would tie a rope on the child’s hand and hold the other end before going to sleep every night.

On Thursday when the woman was sleeping with her daughter, Kallu allegedly sneaked in and quietly cut the rope before picking up the sleeping girl and fleeing. In his confession, Kallu said he had covered the girl with a cloth to escape detection.

According to his confession, he then reached Mumbai Central railway station from where he boarded a Gujarat-bound train. Meanwhile the girl’s mother lodged a kidnapping case with the Nagpada police who quickly alerted all railway stations. They also made a photocopy of the girl’s photograph and sent it to all police stations along the Mumbai-Gujarat line.

Early on Friday, Kallu allegedly disembarked at Valsad railway station. Here too, he covered the girl with a cloth and was trying to make good his escape when alert officers of the railway police posted at the station found his movements suspicious and stopped him. When Kallu fumbled with answers on being asked what he was doing with a girl, the cops detained him. Under interrogation he confessed to his crime.

Nagpada cops were soon informed and the accused brought to Mumbai late on Friday night and produced in court on Saturday. The police said the accused wanted to sell the girl to make a quick buck.